Heavy Garda presence at Ruairí Ó Brádaigh funeral ‘intrusive and unnecessary’

THE large Garda presence at the funeral of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh in Roscommon Town on Saturday that led to scuffles between mourners and gardaí in riot gear has been described by one eyewitness to An Phoblacht as “intrusive, unnecessary and upsetting”. The family had to appeal to the police for space in which to bury their loved one.

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s son, Conchúr, criticised the Garda operation as “heavy-handed and provocative”.

The Irish Times reported that over a dozen uniformed gardaí had surrounded the grave before the funeral procession arrived at the cemetery. Members of the Emergency Response Unit had walked alongside the funeral procession as it continued from the Sacred Heart Church to the graveyard where the former President of Sinn Féin was buried.

An Phoblacht’s eyewitness said that he could not believe how close gardaí with riot shields and batons pressed up against mourners while other officers stood amongst the crowd.

“I saw one woman garda with a video camera filming people whose presence was so intrusive that she had to be pulled away by one of her colleagues who at least acknowledged the upset she was causing amongst mourners.”

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was a Sinn Féin abstentionist TD for Longford/Westmeath from 1957 to 1961. He was President of Sinn Féin from 1970 to 1983 but left in 1986 to form ‘Republican Sinn Féin’ after an Ard Fheis voted to allow Sinn Féin TDs to take their seats in Leinster House. He had been Chief of Staff of the IRA in the late 1950s and 1960.